Pink Floyd reform without Roger Waters to record new song for Ukraine

8 April 2022, 09:01 | Updated: 11 April 2022, 16:44

Pink Floyd is releasing its first new music in almost 30 years to raise money for the people of Ukraine.

After almost three decades, Pink Floyd is reuniting to help raise money for the people of Ukraine.

This will be the first time they are releasing new music as a band since 1994's 'The Division Bell'.

The charity track ‘Hey Hey Rise Up’ features David Gilmour and Nick Mason, with extra vocals from Ukrainian singer Andriy, who is in the band BoomBox.

David, 76, said he had first come across Khlyvnuk's group a few years ago.

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Pink Floyd - Hey Hey Rise Up (feat. Andriy Khlyvnyuk of Boombox)

He told the Guardian: "Recently I read that Andriy had left his American tour with Boombox, had gone back to Ukraine, and joined up with the Territorial Defense.

"Then I saw this incredible video on Instagram, where he stands in a square in Kyiv with this beautiful gold-domed church and sings in the silence of a city with no traffic or background noise because of the war. It was a powerful moment that made me want to put it to music.”

Andriy managed to speak to the band from his hospital bed in Kyiv, where he was recovering from the mortar shrapnel injury, with David adding: “I played him a little bit of the song down the phone line and he gave me his blessing. We both hope to do something together in person in the future.”

Longtime Pink Floyd bassist Guy Pratt is also part of the track, as well as Nitin Sawhney on keyboards.

Original bassist Roger Waters, who left the band in the 1980s, is not on the song.

The news was announced on Thursday, with a statement on Pink Floyd’s official Twitter reading: “Tonight at midnight, Pink Floyd will release a new song, 'Hey Hey Rise Up', which sees David Gilmour and Nick Mason joined by Guy Pratt & Nitin Sawhney, with an extraordinary vocal by Andriy Khlyvnyuk of Ukrainian band Boombox.

“All proceeds from the song will go to Ukrainian Humanitarian Relief.”

Gilmour, who has a Ukrainian daughter-in-law and grandchildren, said: "We, like so many, have been feeling the fury and the frustration of this vile act of an independent, peaceful democratic country being invaded and having its people murdered by one of the world's major powers".

Opening up about how the charity single came about, he added to the Guardian: "I rang Nick up and said: ‘listen, I want to do this thing for Ukraine. I’d be really happy if you played on it and I’d also be really happy if you’d agree to us putting it out as Pink Floyd. And he was absolutely on for that."

Released today (Friday 8th April), all proceeds from the track are going to the Ukraine Humanitarian Relief Fund.

Pink Floyd was founded in London in the mid-1960s and their biggest albums include 'The Dark Side of the Moon,' 'Wish You Were Here' and 'The Wall.'